Why did Die Linke perform so poorly in the North Rhine-Westphalia state election, 201

[campesino]

They lost all of their eleven seats. What happened? The KKE did not do too bad in Greece.

I don't want any discussion about participating in elections or on the value of election results.

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

I am not sure, just bad politics i guess. A large problem is that Die LINKE Party loses people not to other parties, but to non-voters, that they can't mobilise people to vote (for them).

[Railyon]

No idea about NRW, but there were elections in Schleswig-Holstein too and Die Linke fared just as badly, with just over 2%. Which is around the worst result they ever got.

Questions why, well. Class struggle is at a historical low in Germany and I think that we fared kinda "well" during the ongoing crisis helps in keeping the illusion of a stable center. The only change is that now SPD instead of CDU rules, at least in SH. Which is a minor teeny-weeny nudge to the left, if at all.

[The Guy]

Die Linke do notoriously bad in western Germany. The only real votes they get come from what was the GDR. It's not surprising when you consider the expected nationalist pro-capitalist mindset of the western half. When you understand the difference between those whom are from the west and east, you begin to see just why.

From those results, where do you expect people in regions such as NRW to stand politically? There's your answer - when in doubt: right.

[campesino]

I was thinking about recent elections. I've come to the hope, that the people after electing the two main parties, will realize nothing will change. In the U.k the Labour party will not end the crisis. in the U.S the democrat party will not end the crisis. In Germany I doubt the SPD will end the crisis or Syriza in Greece. The french socialist party will not end the crisis either. This will hopefully cause the people give up on reformism and seek change from the bottom up. Our time isn't this year but next year or two years from now.

[Railyon]

I've come to the hope, that the people after electing the two main parties, will realize nothing will change.

lol!

True as that may be, I think that hope is seriously misplaced. In Germany the trend goes toward political apathy instead of radicalization; voters see the system is shit but it apparently ain't so bad that they lose their shit at it. You also have to consider Germany's very unique history in relation to the workers movement and its division into capitalist and "socialist" during much of its postwar period. Nazi Germany effectively smashed the genuine proletarian organizations and basically killed off all the radical leftists, and the postwar boom in Germany (massive opportunities for investment of capital; everything needed to be rebuilt from the bottom up, labor was dirt cheap, etc) held the development of widespread class consciousness at stake. Couple that with the DDR bogeyman and you got a very effective system of keeping your proles in your camp.

[Rafiq]

You have to take into account whose voting.

[Die Neue Zeit]

I am not sure, just bad politics i guess. A large problem is that Die LINKE Party loses people not to other parties, but to non-voters, that they can't mobilise people to vote (for them).

The Pirates can be partly to blame as well. As I said here (http://www.revleft.com/vb/nrw-parliament-elections-t171523/index.html?p=2444430), this loss has the potential to bolster the reform coalitionist wing of Die Linke.


The only real votes they get come from what was the GDR. It's not surprising when you consider the expected nationalist pro-capitalist mindset of the western half. When you understand the difference between those whom are from the west and east, you begin to see just why.

Huh? If anything else, the western parts of the party are more radical than the eastern parts, the latter group being more than happy to participate in budget-cutting governments.

[Railyon]

Huh? If anything else, the western parts of the party are more radical than the eastern parts, the latter group being more than happy to participate in budget-cutting governments.

No idea about this divergence between east and west but from what I heard Die Linke did an absolute shit job in Berlin where it was in coalition with the SPD. Gentrification was one of the cornerstones of the controversy surrounding their government participation there.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Yes, and those folks who were in coalition with the SPD were part of the party's eastern half.

I'd like to add that Die Linke is in a bit of an existential danger. The Pirates are taking away left votes, but all it takes now is the formation of a right-populist (not neo-Nazi, of course) electoral organization like what some German polls have suggested re. attitudes on immigration, and Die Linke's support will go down even further.